


When There Is No Further Need

by Darth_Videtur



Series: Master and Apprentice [5]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Legends - All Media Types, Star Wars Legends: Darth Plagueis - James Luceno, Star Wars: Rise of Empire Era - All Media Types
Genre: Apprentice Legislator Palpatine, Curious Scientist Plagueis, Dark, Drugged Sex, Extremely Dubious Consent, Inappropriate Use of Lightsabers, M/M, Mad Scientists, Master/Apprentice, Mental Coercion, Pheromones, Physical Abuse, Really Dark Fic, Sexual Assault, Sexual Violence, Sith, Sith Shenanigans, Slash, Twisted, Zeltron
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-09-15
Updated: 2016-10-08
Packaged: 2018-08-15 02:40:56
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 6
Words: 13,076
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8039251
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Darth_Videtur/pseuds/Darth_Videtur
Summary: Only months after his young human apprentice's failure to live up to expectations on Sojourn, Plagueis has in mind a method to increase his student's skills. In the process, his tendency to fixate on the scientific possibilities leads to an experiment like never before. Little does he or Sidious realize, but this cold-hearted test will lead to heated revelations for them both.





	1. Meet the New Kid

**Author's Note:**

  * Translation into 中文 available: [[Translation]When There Is No Further Need需求的终点在哪里](https://archiveofourown.org/works/9118549) by [isaakfvkampfer](https://archiveofourown.org/users/isaakfvkampfer/pseuds/isaakfvkampfer)



Sidious looked at the newest acquisition with barely veiled scorn when Plagueis showed him. “What possible use could he be to us, Master? They are a useless species, lazy and arrogant. They spend their days in pointless hedonism or infighting. Their planet is insignificant to the greater politics of our plan.”

 

Plagueis stared down through the reinforced, one-way transparisteel window, watching the pink-skinned humanoid pace his small quarters, and for a moment after he finished his protest, Sidious joined him in gazing down. Plagueis smiled as he felt the young human gain control over his disdain. It seemed each week that his apprentice grew stronger in accepting his cold nature.

 

They continued to stand in silence, until he felt the young human’s eyes flick to him and back to stare fixedly at their test subject. Plagueis sighed. “All true, my idealistic apprentice, to an extent. But I believe there are hidden uses that we might be able to discover with time.”

 

“Do you intend to experiment on him?” Sidious asked, his eyes quickly sliding away from the window in disinterest to land warily on his master.

 

Plagueis allowed a long smile to curve his thin gash of a mouth. “I intend to experiment with him.”

 

He turned, saying no more and feeling Sidious hesitate, and began walking down the long, quiet corridor. After a moment, Sidious followed him on softly padding boots. Aborah’s residents remained curiously quiet this afternoon, as though his new purchase held them all enthralled. Perhaps it did. 

 

These creatures, the near-human Zeltrons, were infamous for their ability to project and perceive the emotions of the beings around them, and for their skills in manipulating said emotions through powerful pheromones. Plagueis already believed most of the stories, for it had required significant reliance on the Dark Side not to fall prey to his new slave when it arrived on Aborah and he had inquisitively removed the restraining pheromone dome shielding. He could still remember the comforting desire to simply let the Zeltron go.  

 

Behind him, he perceived Sidious’s discontent and arrogant impatience simmering under the surface of the Force. His apprentice saw no use for the Zeltron, saw only a waste of time and effort when other test subjects had yet to yield all their dark secrets. Sidious was an academic, not a scientist. Plagueis had plans for this Zeltron, though, plans that Venamis and others could never hope to bring to fruition.  

 

“I require your assistance today, my apprentice,” Plagueis said as they rounded the corner of the passageway that led down to the main level of the cells.

 

“Of course, Master,” Sidious said. His relief in the Force, though hidden carefully to any other, made Plagueis smile wider. The young Naboo clearly expected a normal day of experimentation and data-gathering. Little did he know that today, he too, would be part of a very unique experiment.

 

Plagueis turned aside to enter his preparation room. Over his shoulder, he instructed, “Fetch the third pair of twins, Sidious, and place them in Unit 23 for the second trials, then bring yourself back. We have work to do.”

 

“Master,” Sidious bowed shallowly and moved, swift and certain, out of sight down the hall.

 

In his lab, Plagueis studied the readouts on the console and sighed deeply. Sidious was truly a gift from the Force, young and arrogant, immensely powerful in the Dark Side, lithe and manipulative, and yet he knew when to bend with the winds of fortune. Plagueis was honored to call him his own, and he instinctively knew the young human was destined for great, terrible events in the future. How many other Sith Masters had been honored with the certainty that the Grand Plan would unfold in their lifetime? None. Now the time of the Sith was at hand, and not a moment too soon.

 

How far in the future was uncertain, and therefore the training of this nexus, this vergence in the Force, was critical in both timing and effort. Sidious must be perfect in everything, a weapon honed in every imaginable form of warfare. Most of those did not happen on battlefields for Sith in these modern times (though Sidious excelled in swordplay), but in political backrooms, banking and trading, and between the sheets of both lovers and enemies.

 

Plagueis chuckled; only five months ago, Sidious had discovered a whole new world of seduction. Though resistant, his young apprentice had finally submitted to his persistent sexual pursuit, orgasming around his cock in sweet communion with the darkness, reaching out to the Dark Side for his pleasure when he could not find it with his master. But his master needed no such assistance… Plagueis could close his eyes and still see the golden eyes both reproachful and wanton, still hear the quiet moan slipping from clenched teeth, still feel the impossible tight clench around his thick member. If he focused… but there wasn’t time for that now.  

 

Since then, Plagueis had continued to develop his apprentice’s talents at a leisurely pace, taking his apprentice when Sidious least expected it, but sometimes giving him advanced warning to let the anticipation build. Sidious might have submitted to his teachings, to the wisdom of knowing how to seduce an unwary foe through more than words or threats, but he still failed to submit his mind to his master.

 

He still held part of himself tightly away from Plagueis. Apprentices owned nothing of themselves, Plagueis told him once, several weeks after fucking him for the first time. Sidious had agreed and only tucked his defiance further under his growing shields. His body had been particularly sore and tender that week as Plagueis had used him on a nearly daily basis, and roughly, but Sidious held his peace and did not resist.

 

For his own part, the Muun was entranced by this double-sided submission and deception. Such skill in this one, such arrogant delight in subverting the expected. He entertained himself by imagining that Sidious would submit entirely to him, mind and body. But even if not, even if Sidious managed to shove him away for a time, in the meantime he would learn such a repertoire of tricks to keep even the most debauched opponent distracted.

 

One of the areas Sidious most resisted was the use of his mouth and tongue in pleasurable pursuit. The Dark Lord suspected that the distaste stemmed from the abuse of the three pirates, as they had used Sidious’s mouth over and over, filling his throat with their disgusting bodies until he had vomited. But like it or not, most beings of the galaxy, both male and female, appreciated a flexible tongue and warm lips, and Sidious would learn from the best.

 

His apprentice had failed this small part of his test at the Gathering on Sojourn two months ago, unable to overcome his mental barriers sufficiently to satisfy the requirements of his mission. Of course, Plagueis had done nothing to ensure his success; it was not in the master’s nature or place to help his apprentice survive; rather it was the apprentice’s place to survive and prove himself worthy.

 

He had broken Sidious again that night as punishment for his small failure. A good little apprentice, Sidious patched himself back together and laid low the next several weeks. Fortunately for him in the interim, his twentieth life day had arrived and his mandatory public service to Naboo had ended. The Apprentice Legislature reconvened for the year by that point, and Plagueis had been forced to delay the human’s lessons in giving pleasure so that Palpatine’s fledgling political career could be established and nurtured.

 

This lesson would require a good deal of convincing, which was what led Plagueis to the Zeltron now standing quietly in the cell under the observation window of his prep room. Plagueis typed a few commands into the left console and approached the wide window, gazing down at his latest prize.

 

The Zeltron was a slave, an inspired purchase from an old acquaintance who understood pleasure better than most: Jabba the Hutt. It was a pity Jabba preferred the females of the galaxy, Plagueis thought, or his apprentice might have enjoyed the enlightening company of the old slug, in disguise of course. He thought back to the conversation only two months before… the time when he realized he needed an alternate option.

 

He could remember Jabba’s rolling laugh very easily when he had contacted him by hologram once the slave had arrived. _“Now perhaps you will finally be able to enjoy your slave, Magister,”_ the old slug had chortled, and Plagueis waved the comment away as though it meant nothing. In truth, he was curious to see what might develop. Very curious.

 

That moment, Sidious reentered the room and stalked to his master’s side. “The twins are in place for the testing to begin, Master,” he said. “Would you like me to remain and monitor their progress?”  

 

“No, 11-4D can supervise easily enough.”

 

Sidious nodded and shifted from boot to boot, impatient to return to his studies if Plagueis might allow him. When Plagueis did not immediately answer him, his hope danced fitfully through the Dark Side before he managed to conceal it beneath his shielding.

 

Plagueis ignored him carefully as he moved around the lab center. A button to push here, and temperature to change there, all routine. Nothing too threatening. A scientist going about his business, except in this case his business was the future of the Sith Order.

 

At last he turned to his dutiful apprentice and smiled. “Do you remember the last Gathering, Sidious?”

 

Instant wariness, well-hidden to any other but never hidden from the master. “Yes, I do.”

 

“Good. Do you recall your failure?”

 

“Yes…”

 

“I have thought it over, my apprentice, and I believe the fault may lie with me. I did not sufficiently prepare you to face the demands of that night.”

 

They both knew it was no apology, that both of them expected Sidious to succeed without assistance, regardless of the difficulty of the task. Sidious lowered his head. “I failed you, Master, by not living up to your expectations. I cannot blame you for punishing me.”

 

Plagueis stared at him, swallowing the satisfaction. “I have determined to rectify the situation, regardless of the fault. This Zeltron beneath us is a well-trained slave in the arts of love and pleasure, Sidious. I retrieved him from Jabba the Hutt, who has assured me that his methods are highly effective.”

 

The blood drained from Palpatine’s face, and he inquired politely, “A slave, Master?”

 

“Yes, and one who fully understands what is expected of him in this venture. May I trust you understand as well?”

 

A long side look, a slow nod. A tremor in the Force. “I believe I do, Master.”

 

Plagueis nodded. “So you do. Pay close attention and learn from him. He will teach you the skills necessary to succeed where you failed before. A Sith should never assume that he will have a second chance to make a situation right.”

 

“A Sith must be perfect from the start,” Sidious reflected quietly. “Honed to every eventuality, ready to adjust when the situation changes underfoot. Often without warning.”

 

“Just so.”

 

At his master’s pleased nod, Sidious ducked his head in clear resignation. “When would you have me begin my lessons, Master?”

 

Plagueis smiled without warmth. “There is no time like the present, Lord Sidious. Introduce yourself.”

 

A soft sigh escaped his pupil, then Sidious deferred. “Of course, Master. I will excuse myself, in that case.”

 

Plagueis watched him disappear out the wide doorway, the narrow shoulders stiff with resolve. He was proud of Sidious, he truly was, in that moment. Young Sheev Palpatine had come a long way from his former noble life in these last three years; Sidious had been dragged through the dirt and mud of a hundred and more challenges, both physical and mental, each more trying than the last. His arrogance battered down, his self-confidence challenged ruthlessly, his pride sorely wounded, and yet he refused to give in to failure when so many others would have rolled over and died, desperate to be released from their pain and cowardly looking for the way out.

 

Not Sidious. Sidious never gave up. Beaten, burned, frozen, raped, stranded, it did not matter. The young human had sunk his small teeth into the Dark Side and refused to let go.

 

And in return, the Dark Side gladly tightened its own grip on the human. What a gift from the Force, Plagueis mused. And from such a lovely planet, too, how fitting that the reign of the Dark Side would be reborn there on idyllic Naboo.

 

Down in the room, the cell’s door slid open and Sidious stalked in, eyes landing immediately on the Zeltron, pausing awkwardly as the door closed at his back.

 

For a moment the two simply looked, sizing the other up.


	2. Too Far to Turn Back Now

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sidious experiences something he never has before, while Plagueis gets an idea that could change everything.

“So…” the Zeltron stood from the low bench and wandered over toward Sidious, his walk slow and purposeful, slinky almost, and Plagueis could see his apprentice tensing with uncertainty. The Zeltron circled the human and looked him up and down. “You’re the one I’m meant to teach. Someone wants you to know how to suck cocks, huh?”

 

Sidious gritted his teeth. “We don’t need to talk about it.”

 

The Zeltron laughed, throaty and full and pleased, and put out one pink hand and trailed it seductively down his front, brushing past his trousers. “But of course we do. You want to find yourself freezing up when someone talks dirty to you?”

 

Looking straight ahead, Sidious looked like a statue, he remained so still. “I know what I’m expected to do.”

 

“Sure you do… You look like you could put anything at ease.”

 

“Stop mocking me.”

 

“Yeah, I guess I am…” The Zeltron tilted his head and grinned. “You’re stiffer than some of the cocks I’ve taken.”

 

The ghost of a blush appeared high in the thin cheeks.

 

“You’re still new at this, aren’t you?” the Zeltron demanded after a moment. “Relax and stick with me. You and me, we’re in the same boat, you know. I like it, and I’m sure you’ll learn how to like it too.”

 

“I’m nothing like you, slave!” he snarled, the sound explosive in the quiet room, then he caught himself with a glance upward and growled, “I don’t have to like it.”

 

Plagueis wondered in amusement who his apprentice was truly addressing.

 

“Sure, sure. But you’ll be like me before too long. So your master’s not satisfied. Why not?”

 

Sidious paused and fixed his gaze on the floor. “I don’t know how…” he muttered. “…how to do it.”

 

“Really? It’s pretty intuitive.” The Zeltron reached out and played his fingers down the other’s robed chest. Sidious stayed rigidly still under his wandering hands. “How many times have you taken a cock?”

 

Sidious reddened further and refused to look at the humanoid. “Ah… you mean…?”

 

The Zeltron grinned. “Both ways.”

 

The young Sith tensed. “Many times… my master uses me often.”

 

“Oh. Well then, how about species?”

 

His reply could barely be heard. “Human, Muun, Twi’lek, and Weequay.”

 

The Zeltron winced in sympathy. “Weequay? Those barbs hurt, yeah. I try to avoid those, honestly, but sometimes you can’t, gotta make the best of a bad situation. Anyway…” He unbuckled the young Sith Lord’s belt and pulled it loose.

 

Sidious grabbed his wrist and yanked it up in a sudden vise grip, hard enough that the Zeltron’s pink face flushed with pain as the bones ground together. The humanoid froze in place, other hand up in gentle placation. Plagueis admired his calm; Jabba had been right when he said the Zeltron was well experienced. Of course, he had yet to make a deal with Jabba that did not work to their mutual advantage.

 

The Zeltron smiled and dropped his eyes, and Sidious finally released him. Making no show of his injury, the slave continued as though nothing had happened. “Anyway… you’re too tense to work with right now. We need to get you loosened up.”

 

A moment later, Plagueis watched his apprentice’s eyes glaze with a sudden calm, unnatural calm, and he knew the Zeltron was releasing his powerful pheromones into the room’s air.

 

Sidious didn’t react when the Zeltron reached for his trousers and tugged them down his narrow hips, not even when his undergarments soon followed, but his lips parted in a small gasp when the slave palmed his relaxed shaft. “What… what are you doing?” he licked suddenly dry lips in a harsh whisper. He quailed under the cool hand that pushed his robes down and off his narrow shoulders.

 

Plagueis could sense his apprehension even across this distance.

 

The Zeltron traced fingertips over his waist and upper thighs, expertly moving away from his center. “I thought it might be nice to get to know each other a bit, first. I’m going to show you a few things, but you need to relax, and you need to pay attention. Someday soon, you’ll be doing the same things for your master, or whoever your master tells you to fuck.”

 

Sidious shook his head with the beginnings of alarm. “Can’t you just tell me?”

 

The Zeltron laughed. “Oh no. You need to feel this to be able to do it. And then you’ll need to practice. Here, step out of those pants. You won’t need them anymore.” He pushed him gently to step aside, and after a wavering moment, Sidious complied, glancing up where he knew the observation window was.

 

Plagueis admired the sight. He would never grow tired of the human’s sleek form, the lithe muscles that he had personally hammered and pounded into existence through intense physical training and torturous missions. The beautiful, faded, _artful_ scars that crossed the pale canvas in elegant designs of death and ruthless preparation, a few of them still fresh from their sparring only several nights before. This was his creation, raw power honed into the most deadly instrument the Sith Order might ever know.

 

The Zeltron circled his student again, nodding in approval. “You’re well built. Youthful build, strong, soft skin, I bet they love to grab your hips when they take you, don’t they? You’re built to be a submissive, but not in your head, I’m thinking. No… you aren’t submissive at all.”

 

Sidious stared at the far wall as though he couldn’t hear the comments.

 

Plagueis smiled. The Zeltron had no idea.

 

“Kind of thin in the lips, though. Not the best nose. But a nice smooth chest, good pecs, and… this is just fantastic,” the Zeltron grinned, reaching boldly out and trailing his fingers down the thin red line of hair that started just under the navel and ran down to the base of his cock. Sidious shivered and stayed still when the fingers toyed briefly with his length, petting him.

 

The Zeltron kept up a gentle stroking before moving behind him and gently slapping him across the buttocks. Sidious flinched and shoved the hand away. The slave chuckled, unoffended by his defensiveness. “Small firm ass. Perfect for fucking, I bet. Do you feel like prize stock when I describe you this way?”

 

Sidious looked straight ahead, but the Zeltron turned him gently by the chin, his playful tone softening to a quiet sympathy. “I’m sorry, it’s always hardest in the beginning. People like you and me, we’re cogs in a bigger game.”

 

They stared at each other.

 

“I’m not like you…”

 

Finally, the Zeltron shrugged. “You’ll learn to accept it. That’s the way they’re thinking about you. They’ll especially like your cock. Large enough to play with and very useful, but not so thick as to make most of them feel bad about themselves. Know your own strengths in seduction.”    

 

“I know what I can do.”

 

“You will,” the Zeltron winked. “Let’s start our first lesson.”

 

“I want… no part in this…” Sidious protested softly, even as the Zeltron curved his pink hands over his sides and backed him up until his knees buckled against the cot and he slid down. The Zeltron slid with him, kneeling between his legs, hands now gripping on the narrow thighs.

 

The Zeltron let another wave of pheromones waft over the human, and Sidious twitched, eyes dilating until the pale blue was nearly swallowed by the darkness of his pupils. His legs loosened, his brilliant mind fogged under the druglike influence, and he leaned back on his hands as he watched the alien smiling up at him. “What… are you doing to me?”

 

“Just a little something to help you relax,” the slave purred, rubbing gentle circles further up the splayed legs. Sidious shifted his hips almost painfully and looked away, his whole body shivering when the Zeltron leaned forward and blew out a cool, soft breath.

 

Human teeth gritted in confusion. Once-sharp, carefully filed inhuman teeth shone up in feline confidence.

 

“Part of getting someone hard with your mouth is never letting it touch them, until the time is right,” the Zeltron paused his fingers, his voice utterly soothing and milky. “You tease them first, human. You make them think they need your mouth and nothing else.” He reached out and brushed one gentle finger up the underside of the tender flesh, and Sidious gasped.

 

The Zeltron smiled and released another wave of pheromones when he sensed his student tensing. The effect was instantaneous, the young Sith’s body going languid with a wave of pleasure instead, his eyes blown wide with apprehension, suspicion, and fast-growing arousal. Plagueis felt his own trousers tightening at the sight of the blatant desire in those normally cold, unfeeling depths.

 

Sidious licked his lips. “I feel…”

 

“Good,” the Zeltron finished for him. “Yes, good enough to learn, so listen carefully. You don’t attack a cock all at once, you know. You lick it first, like you’re honored to get to taste it. It’s all a mind game.” He leaned in and touched his tongue to the side of Sidious’s pale member, and the Sith twisted away with a shocked soft cry.

 

“Feels more than good,” the Zeltron smirked, pulling him back to the edge of the cot and licking a new line from the smooth balls to the tip, a quick brushstroke of a master that left the student shuddering. “Put your hands in my hair, most of them will want to do it to you,” the slave instructed, and Sidious obediently reached out and twined his slender fingers in the soft hair.

 

In the Force, he was screaming with confusion and rage. Helpless rage, as the pheromones rolled over him and ripped away his inhibitions, as the Zeltron licked him several more times, light, quick curls of the tongue. Sidious moaned when the Zeltron took his tip in his mouth and suckled lightly. Plagueis could see his apprentice quickly getting hard, his slender lengthening shaft rising against his will.

 

“You can use your hand and mouth at the same time to get a special effect,” the Zeltron pulled back long enough to say, stretching out his hand and closing it loosely around the base as his tongue returned to laving the head of the trembling cock. He pumped Sidious once, and the human bucked up with a hoarse snarl. The Zeltron glanced at his flushed face, his slack, panting lips. “That’s right, you’re getting the idea now. Lay back a little, roll your hips up at me.”

 

“Why?” Sidious rasped, alarmed and trying to break out of his artificially induced pleasure.

 

The Zeltron smiled guilelessly and loosed more pheromones, watching confidently as Sidious succumbed to the pleasure, head tilting back, protest momentarily forgotten. The slave gripped his narrow waist and guided him back onto his elbows, tilting his hips up on the cot. Sidious watched him through a haze as the Zeltron licked his cock and then slid his mouth halfway down over it, the human’s hips rising to meet the unfamiliar warmth.

 

The Zeltron chuckled, the vibrations shuddering up into his student, then he pulled free with a wet sound, admiring the hard length of flesh under his grip and then glancing meaningfully lower. Sidious had closed his eyes at this point and missed the pointed stare.    

 

Pausing, the humanoid glanced over him thoughtfully. “The pleasure can be heightened further still. All one needs to do…” He slid one finger back to Palpatine’s entrance and slipped it into the tight heat without warning. Sidious gasped and arched his back under the onslaught of the Zeltron’s projected desire and the curious digit.

 

The Zeltron palmed his cock and curled his finger inside, and the young Sith Lord growled helplessly in the back of his throat. “You have to be careful though, some clients don’t want to be penetrated.” He grinned and probed a little deeper, pulling a defiant whine from his pupil. “They just don’t know how good it can feel. Do you feel how I am hooking my finger forward? I’m hitting your prostate, human. It’s very sensitive to touch as you are learning. You’re feeling very, very good right now, aren’t you? Some species don’t have it the same, but humans are very susceptible here.”

 

Sidious shifted his hips and tried to pull away, fighting the effects of the pheromones as hard as he could. “You are a sensitive one, for sure,” the Zeltron laughed and loosed another wave that sent Sidious boneless in his grasp. Removing his finger and gripping the wiry thighs, the slave took him fully into his mouth, lifting and lowering, curling his agile tongue until the young Sith came with a soft cry, spilling into the grinning mouth.

 

Leaning back, the Zeltron wiped at his lips and swallowed with a satisfied smirk. “That’s how you do it, little human. You’ll get the hang of it.”

 

As Plagueis looked down at his apprentice on the cot, his thin chest heaving for breath, gasping from the unnatural strength of his orgasm, his presence in the Force reeling from the shame of being so easily conquered, the Sith Master’s thoughts began to follow a new train of thought, though it was a thought that had floated unacknowledged in the back of his mind since seeing the Zeltron slave and feelings its effects.

 

He acknowledged it now.  

 

Obviously, the Zeltron’s pheromones had been enough to overwhelm the reservations of his withdrawn student. Pheromones were a physical base, perhaps capable of being replicated and produced independently of the original source… Pheromones could even be applied to a new host, easily enough he supposed, though he had never tried.

 

He did not bother to watch Sidious recover his lost dignity, but swept from the room full of his new thoughts and plans. He had work to do, tests to run. His mind was already caught up in the future.

 

The possibilities were endless.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1\. Rest assured, Sidious will not be terribly happy when he comes down off his pheromone high.  
> 2\. Rest assured, Plagueis' endless plotting will not end well for him. Eventually.   
> 3\. Rest assured, we are in for some serious emotional, mental, and physical manipulation next chapter... twisted Sith.


	3. Gentle, Terrible Seduction

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Plagueis' unorthodox experiment begins to take shape, which will lead both him and his apprentice into treacherous territory.

He used the Zeltron in a series of lessons for his young apprentice, and he was certain the lessons were making their mark. He did not force Sidious to practice on the Zeltron, but rather gave tests of his own and found himself growing satisfied with the young human’s progress. After less than a month, he pronounced the lessons complete and sank the Zeltron into suspended animation deep in his labs, to be used if needed later, but on the side, Plagueis continued to develop his pet project.

 

He changed the scent and eliminated the faint smell that might alert Palpatine to his new adornment. He intensified the level until his test subjects showed complete submission to the concoction, some even losing their memories of the testing in the wake of the pleasurable pheromones.  

 

At last, his opportunity to test his newest experiment came at the end of one of Palpatine’s week-long missions to Chandrila, ostensibly to settle a legal case for the Apprentice Legislative Program but more truthfully to root out a leak in Damask Holding’s security. The Naboo noble was exuberant upon his return, excited by his successes in both areas and near to bursting with the political insight he had gained. He truly enjoyed being free of his mandatory public service to Naboo. His wings were stretching, and he was finding politics a natural and comforting place to be, his mind sharper than any of his opponents.

 

This was very good.

 

Plagueis had never been one to enjoy too much tedious political drama, but Palpatine seemed born to it, so he indulged the young human’s enthusiasm for most of the day as he worked on various trials in the depths of Aborah. His apprentice made an excellent assistant in the labs, never flinching from even the most gruesome of trials. Plagueis gave no sign that he expected anything more from his apprentice, and Palpatine began to relax in the glow of his recent triumph.

 

The Sith Master laughed silently. Eventually Sidious would learn that a Sith could never assume safety.

 

That evening, he lounged in his secondary private study when Sidious arrived at his summons. He made a place for Sidious on the carpet in front of the fire, and together they meditated in the Force for nearly an hour. By the end of the time, Sidious was as relaxed as he ever could be with his Master, and Plagueis knew he would be receptive then if the experiment actually worked.

 

The time had come to test his apprentice. Tenderly this time. Slowly. Exquisitely.

 

“Master?” Sidious asked, surprised as the Muun abruptly broke their meditative connection in the Force, stood, and crossed the room to fill his glass with wine. Unknown to him, Plagueis also activated the first subtle release of the pheromones on his robes.  

 

“Come, Sidious,” Plagueis murmured as he moved to the large couch across from the fire. “Your meditations for the evening are complete, and I have some information to share with you.”

 

Sidious nodded warily and stood to join his master. Plagueis saw the moment the wafting pheromones brushed his apprentice’s nose; Palpatine’s eyes dilated and the young human halted in place.

 

“Is everything in order, my Apprentice?” he inquired innocently.

 

Sidious swallowed and brushed away his misgivings. Little did he understand yet what flowed over his senses and obscured the truth, what would soon open him to far deeper realities than mere and inconvenient truth. Instead, he determined not to show weakness before his master. “Yes, Master, I just… a bit of dizziness…”

 

“Shall I call 11-4D?” How easy it was to caress his deep, somber tones into something approaching gentle concern.

 

The young Sith shook his head, moved to Plagueis’s side, and sat cautiously and primly on the plush couch, his back ramrod straight and his slender hands perched on his knees. He stared at nothing. “No need. I will be fine.”

 

“I hope you have not neglected your care while on this mission,” Plagueis warned, playfully laying a hand across the hard plane of the Palpatine’s closest leg. Possessively. Naturally.  

 

His apprentice looked at him, betraying nothing on his narrow face, but radiating worry and defensiveness in the Force, and a tinge of artificial arousal. “Everything proceeded as we had foreseen, Master. There was no real danger.”

 

“I jest. You seem to be unusually tense today, Lord Sidious,” he purred, shifting his hand higher on the human’s thigh and sliding it to the inner line of muscle, noting with savage delight how Palpatine unconsciously spread his legs to the wordless request, giving him easier access. He had been trained well. The Muun’s fingers caught and paused on the inseam of the trousers, mere centimeters away from the faint bulge. Then he activated the second wave of pheromones, stronger yet.

 

“It was a difficult mission, Master,” Sidious replied, looking down at his master’s hand, eyes wide but not with fear or anger as the pheromones did their silent work. “One of the men confessed to knowing something of our more recent work on Naboo.”  

 

Plagueis pulled his hand free and caught a wave of embarrassed disappointment in the Force. Well now… He glanced up and caught Sidious looking at him from under hooded eyes, openly curious. Sidious flushed and turned back to face the fire.

 

“And did you learn where he gained this information?”

 

Sidious appeared afraid to look at him fully. He studied the flames as he spoke. “I tore it from his mind, Master. They will never find him. Turns out it was one of Tapalo’s minor secretaries.”

 

Plagueis felt a rare slip of surprise. “Truly? How interesting, and unfortunate. We will need to keep a closer eye on our friends in the palace. You have done well, my apprentice. I will need to think of an appropriate reward.”

 

He ignored the flare of alarm behind the loosened shields of his apprentice’s mind and kept a closer eye on Sidious’s coloring, his pale skin flushing faint pink when the Muun’s hand returned, this time gently stroking the dulled edge of his hip through the layers of ornate robes. Plagueis smirked and traced his fingertips to the youth’s rigid back.

 

Sidious shivered.

 

The Dark Lord allowed his hand to drift openly over the thin body, every feather touch and calculated stroke combining with the powerful pheromones to reduce his strong-willed apprentice to perplexed compliance.

 

He waited until Sidious trembled in the Force as well.

 

“Yet perhaps my information can wait. I sense in you great need tonight, Sidious,” Plagueis murmured, leaning so close that his mouth brushed the tip of one small ear. “Do you deny it?”

 

“No…” Sidious looked straight ahead. “But I do not… understand it either. This is not, not normal.”

 

“Do you need to understand everything, my little academic?” he chuckled.

 

Sidious looked at him sharply, almost suspiciously, before the suspicion slid away in the face of the mind-altering pheromones that coated Plagueis’s simple robes. “I have never… felt quite this way before, Master, that is… is all.”

 

“Is it so bad?”

 

A pregnant pause. The room crackled with the sound of the fire.

 

“I… don’t know.” On his face was a strange, open fear. Sidious never showed fear. It was delicious. He was frightened of himself, the longing that had to be spreading through his lithe body even now. The pheromones did not announce their presence; to his apprentice, it would feel as though he truly longed for his master’s intimate caresses.

 

Plagueis wondered what Sidious thought of that.

 

He admired the resistance still deep in the young man as he unknowingly attempted to overcome the effects of the drug-like state. But the concentrated dose would soon override any remaining reservations, he was sure of it. “I think you could learn to like it. Shall we test my theory?”

 

“I’ve never…”

 

He pushed a long finger against the thin lips, cutting off the soft protest. “Then it will be a novel experience for you. Perhaps you should get comfortable.” He knew his suggestion would come across as nearly a direct order with the support of the pheromones, and shortly Sidious nodded his assent, standing and shrugging out of his outer robes.

 

The motions were rote, as they were when he always obeyed his master.

 

He paused to lay them over the side chair and then looked at the Muun. Unsure. Nervous. Faintly aroused. “I don’t think… something’s not right…”

 

Plagueis allowed his desire to reach out through the Force and touch against his apprentice’s befuddled mind. He projected a dark calm on the shields until Sidious stilled under his gaze. “Think of this as another experience, Lord Sidious. Learn from this. Do not hide from what you feel. The Sith are not Jedi; we do not fear to embrace a multitude of emotions. Hate, fear, triumph… passion.” He caught the human’s hand and easily pulled him close and down, until their lips were nearly touching.

 

“Lust,” he whispered and licked at the soft skin. Sidious shuddered.

 

“I feel… so much, Master. I need…”

 

Plagueis rejoiced at the whimpered confession, stuttering, halting sentences of fearful desire. His body tightened with anticipation of the coming night. “Sith do not hesitate to pursue what they want, Lord Sidious. So what do you wish tonight?”

 

Reaching down, he deliberately brushed the back of his hand between Palpatine’s legs, and the younger Sith jerked with surprise when arousal surged in his body. “I… want you.” Emotions flashed in rapid succession across his pale face: shock, anger, fear, curiosity, desire.

 

Plagueis soaked in the three words, pulled on the Force to restrain himself from moving forward and taking his apprentice on the floor like a savage animal. Tonight a gentle hand would serve well. “Then you shall have me,” he promised low and heated and watched Sidious automatically reach for the ties to his inner robes.

 

This was a dream, surely.

 

Sidious disrobed, his deliberate movements almost sensual, eyes never leaving his master as he slipped off the last of his garments and stood naked before him, body trembling with his unnatural longing. Against the backdrop of the fire, he resembled some half-wild forest sprite from a moon-driven planet, soft red _perfect_ hair almost glowing around the edges in the flickering light. In the dark of the Force, he was a maelstrom of subdued and desperate power yearning for a firm hand, for boundaries. Plagueis could give him that.

 

Before he did, he intended to thoroughly enjoy himself. Leaning back against the couch, he allowed a thin smile to curve his lips. “What would you like first, Sidious?”

 

Sidious lowered his gaze to the floor, hooded and bared all at once to his master’s growing hunger in the Force. When he spoke, his voice carried a faint tremor, as though he did not believe he could speak such things. “I would… like you to touch me, Master.”

 

There it was, words the Sith Master had always fantasized what they might sound like coming from those tender lips. Still, he reined in his lust with perfect control. The night needed to be savored like the finest of wines.

 

“Would you?” he grinned. “So bold. You possess better manners than that.”

 

“Please, Master.”

 

How sweet it was to hear that rich voice pleading for him, but he wanted more. A true Sith always wanted more. So he bared his teeth in a triumphant, lazy smile.

 

“No… ask me to fuck you.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Uh-oh...  
> 1\. Pheremones: the Sith date-rape drug? I always thought Zeltrons and Falleens had such an insidious place/role in the Star Wars universe.   
> 2\. Poor, confused Sidious.   
> 3\. This is why Master-Apprentice relationships really aren't recommended...


	4. The Line in the Sand

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Plagueis uses the power of the pheromones to get what he wants. Or does he?

The words fell heavily to the floor between them.

 

Sidious paused. The fire in his eyes, delicately surreal, died for just a moment before it sparked back into life, a light like nothing Plagueis had ever seen in those eyes before. The Muun felt his heartbeats increase. Sidious turned his head and dropped his gaze demurely to the flames in the fireplace and took a ragged breath, breathing in the toxic air. It bolstered his false courage just enough. “Fuck me, Master. Please.”

 

_Magnificent._ Plagueis chuckled at the bright flushing spreading across the shoulders and lightly freckled face of his apprentice. “And how would you like to be fucked, my willing Apprentice? On your back? Bent over the chair? Like a bitch on all fours? Perhaps I should have you ride me. Perhaps all of the above, hm?”

 

Sidious flinched with each description but nodded. “If that is your wish.”

 

“No,” Plagueis said. “You choose tonight.”

 

Sidious hesitated for a moment, looking back at him, agony and confusion etched on his features. “On my back….”

 

“What are you waiting for, then?” He waved at the floor. “Take your place.”

 

Sidious sank to the lush floor and slowly reclined, quivering like a frightened animal with the pheromone’s power. Gaze fixed to the ceiling, distant and unfocused, he tilted his hips up to the position he knew Plagueis liked and spread his legs and waited quietly.

 

Plagueis waited too, dragging his gaze over the perfect, youthful body on display for him, bathed in the light of the flickering flames, shadows licking across the pale skin like a lover’s tongue. He would have to ensure that Palpatine kept himself fit like this for the decades to come, and of course no Sith could afford to slide into physical disarray, and he wondered how his perfect little human would age over time, if he would enjoy the changes that maturity would bring, what age Plagueis might like to stop the natural decay of his partner once immortality had been achieved.

 

He shook the distracting thoughts away: back to matters at hand. He could not resist a gentle verbal prodding. “You seem unusually eager tonight, my apprentice.”

 

Sidious did not answer immediately. He seemed confused now more than anything else as his thoughts warred with his body for control.

 

Plagueis waved one long-fingered hand in dismissal. “I am not complaining, of course. You look prepared, in any case. Are you ready?”

 

A small nod, as though pained to admit it. “I am ready, Master.”  

 

“Then I shall not keep you waiting,” he taunted soft and smiling, and slid from the chair to the carpet in front of his apprentice. He leaned over the naked form and captured the thin mouth with his own, twining his long fingers into the silky red hair.

 

He sought to part the trembling lips with his tongue, and this time, Sidious did not fight him. This time, Sidious shivered and surged under him with desperation and opened to allow his master to take what he wanted, and Plagueis nearly lost the ability to breathe. _By the spirits of Korriban, this nexus in the Force is entirely mine!_

 

He kissed the small lips hard enough to leave bruises in the morning, but Sidious did not protest, not even when his master fumbled to undo his trousers and reveal his own thick shaft, weeping with fat, glistening drops of liquid ease. Somehow, the contents of the small container of oil in his pocket spilled into his apprentice’s hand. Plagueis groaned when Sidious reached out and spread the fluid over his master, preparing him with warm nimble fingers that danced on his cool grey skin.

 

Plagueis growled low in his throat and pushed the lean thighs wider apart. Lifting his hips, Sidious hissed as the Muun rolled forward and pressed into him. “Master….” Fingers released the cool shaft and clutched instead at the strands of carpet as Plagueis plunged past the taut barrier of muscle. 

 

Plagueis gazed down at him, marveling at the way the young man’s lips parted just so, slightly swollen from his master’s ardent affections and so very inviting that he lowered his head and took them again as he settled himself deeper into Palpatine’s clenched orifice. Sidious groaned and submitted as the Muun’s tongue tasted him at leisure, licking at the sweetness of his smaller mouth.

 

“Why did you choose this position, Lord Sidious?” Plagueis whispered when he let the other speak again.

 

Sidious looked at him in faint horror. “It doesn’t matter, Master.”

 

“Nevertheless, I wish to know.”

 

The Muun sank his fingernails deeper into the human’s smooth flanks and felt him squirm in discomfort. It brought only pleasure to the older Sith. How warm his little human was, how tight inside!

 

After a moment, Sidious lowered his gaze to his master’s long neck. “I… wished to see…”

 

“See what?” he demanded and felt his hearts seize with dark hope.

 

Tortured, confused eyes lifted to his own. “See… see your face… no… Master…” Sidious moaned suddenly, hoarsely, as if the pheromones were robbing him of his voice. “What-what is happening to me?”

 

“Don’t deny what you feel like the Jedi do, Lord Sidious. Take control of it instead, as a true Sith. Own it…”

 

Plagueis grinned as the younger Sith convulsed around his probing cock, muscles squeezing desperately, trying to draw him in, push him out. Plagueis pushed his apprentice down on his back when he tried to rise, and then Palpatine’s wiry pale torso was arching against him with each slow, easy, deep thrust, every muscle straining to press longingly to his tormentor.

 

Soft moans for his master.

 

His lover.

 

His sweet torment was pure dark delight to Plagueis as he watched Palpatine coming apart on his thick cock like a wanton courtesan. His paramour, for the master was already wedded to Bogan, and the apprentice soon would be. Oh, then what carnal delights they would share in orgasmic Darkness!

 

Palpatine’s eyes fluttered shut with the pleasure his master was broadcasting in the Force, and Plagueis slapped him gently on his bruised hip. The eyes flared open, dazed with lust and golden gleaming up at him. Twin stars, galaxies wheeling under him as he split the boy with the deepest thrust yet. This time he meant to bring the pain.

 

For only in the place between absolute pleasure and debilitating pain could they dwell in perfect harmony.

 

The Force – Sidious – cried out and clawed at the thick carpet, his hands digging for purchase in the rich folds, but his eyes never left his master’s face, as though searching for the truth of the night in it. Plagueis studied the heaving sharp plane of his human’s smooth chest and thin belly, the ridged muscles trembling with the effort to accommodate his master’s inhuman girth.

 

“Do you feel that, my little Sith?” Plagueis smiled, stilling and giving the human a chance to catch his breath. The minute Sidious started to inhale, he thrust again and was rewarded with a short cry, almost a scream of explosive gasping. Sidious writhed, trying to escape the deep pressure in his core. The Sith master playfully allowed him to slip free, then he caught the trembling legs, pulled the slender body back into reach, flipped him onto his back, and roughly impaled him again.

 

Sidious bit hard at his lip to hide his cry. “Please…” He whimpered, was slower to escape this time, and Plagueis let him nearly get off the rug before he tugged the lean legs back and open and settled between them, feeling the body jerk and twist under his relentless pursuit, tightening around his hungry eager invading cock.

 

At last his apprentice quieted under him, no longer seeking to evade his ardor. Conquered, he lay passively as Plagueis began a slow rhythm of light, taunting presses, not enough to bring either of them over the edge. Not yet. “You are learning quickly today,” he said with a smile. “Fighting is pain, submission is pleasure. You belong here.”

 

Sidious looked up at him with pheromone-fueled eyes. “Yes, Master. Oh…” and he canted his hips up when Plagueis ruthlessly brushed his prostate again and again. “Master… this feels…why…?”

 

Plagueis’s three hearts thumped faster at the sense of abandonment his apprentice was exuding. Sidious was close to losing control at last! He tested the human’s shields in the Force and found them strong but sensitive to the touch. One quavered when he brushed it, and he could almost imagine Sidious was being coy with him, luring him in. He pushed harder and it folded down, revealing a glimpse of the infinite darkness behind, but willing exposure this time, open invitation. Palpatine was not resisting his mental probe.

 

Plagueis chuckled to hide his dazed lust as he stared into savage darkness itself, beckoning him forward. “How ready you are for me, my Apprentice. Your whole body desires me, I can feel it. How does it feel to be completed by me?”

 

Corded muscles stood out on Palpatine’s delicate neck at the next teasing, tender thrust, head lolling helplessly to one side. The Sith Master watched as the young man’s eyes fixed desperately on the far wall. “I’ve – I’ve never felt anything like it.” As if the confession were being torn from his lungs. Shamed. Aroused.

 

Plagueis stroked his hand down that slender throat and over the firm chest – a needy whine bubbled up – then turned the narrow face back to him with steel tenderness. “Nor will you ever anywhere else. This is where you belong, on my cock.” He carefully hid his next thoughts, impossible to stop. _In my bed. At my side. Forever, as I spread you open to the manifold mysteries and pleasures of the Force. As I display you entirely bared before Bogan’s dark gaze. Be mine forever, Apprentice, and know the galaxy to be ours. Nothing will stop us._

 

Sidious hesitated, trembling. “Master… I cannot…”

 

Plagueis stared down into the golden orbs of fire. He knew his own eyes matched in that endless moment as they joined both bodies and tarred souls. “Tell me where you belong, Apprentice.”

 

“I…” The Force moved like sticky pitch around their entwined limbs.

 

He stroked long fingers down the high cheekbones, just between the delicate lips and drew out a ragged sigh, a demure blush of capitulation. At last.

 

“With you, Master… in your service.”

 

“Don’t be shy with me. You can hide nothing from your master,” Plagueis encouraged, silky smooth, letting the pheromones turn his deep baritone into a seductive coaxing. “Tell me _exactly_ where you belong.”

 

Sidious stared, frozen. Plagueis thrust hard.

 

Every muscle lined against his arched and tensed as Sidious yelped. “Ah! On… on your c-cock, Master, ahhhh….” Sidious fell back into the plush carpet, channel constricting around Plagueis because the Muun was coming with a snarl, pumping into his young human with desperate, snapping hips. Sidious tried to writhe under him, the Force roaring with their combined lusts, but Plagueis held him still as the Naboo rode out his own violent orgasm with a low moan. 

 

The Dark Lord looked down at his apprentice, filled with his master’s pleasure, covered in his own and panting from their exertions, and a rush of dark glee flooded the Muun’s narrow, heaving chest. Then it threatened to seep away into the cold, harsh reality. Threatened to turn to emptiness. This was beautiful and right, that Sidious was coming undone for him, but without the pheromones, it was only a dream. Only a dream.

 

For now.

 

He stared almost tenderly down at his dream. Sidious was too far gone to notice the longing in his master’s elongated face.

 

Well, Plagueis reflected after savoring the emotion of loss, he would simply enjoy it for them both until the morning, when they must wake up.

 

This had been a cheap victory, a farce made of his apprentice’s wild independence. Perhaps even the mightiest Sith could be tamed with enough physical manipulation, but the emotions would not be true. Would not mean anything.

 

He consoled himself with the thought that someday it would become his reality. He thrilled at the chance that Sidious truly would come to learn his place at his master’s side, set aside the Rule of Two, and rule as long as they wished, however they wished, finding eternal companionship in the other’s hard, cruel, loving embrace. He need only convince Lord Sidious.  

 

With that thought, Plagueis carefully slid out of Palpatine’s thin body and settled back to admire the sight. As Sidious came down from his high, Plagueis reached out and caressed one shaking leg. He felt the muscles seize up under his hand. For a moment he lingered, content to rub at the smooth flesh, content to let his gentle touch and the pheromones guide Sidious into a sated boneless finish. Sidious looked unsteadily up at him, uncertain, as if he wanted to speak but did not trust himself to any such thing.

 

When at last his apprentice lay still, Plagueis swept to his feet and looked down, feigning complete disinterest. “Go clean yourself up,” he told Palpatine, and the young man fled naked and ashamed and confused from the room.

 

Plagueis returned to his seat, picked up his nearly forgotten wine, warm and mellow, and permitted himself a melancholy smile. This would be a night to remember. Oh, yes.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1\. When Sidious puts two and two together, it won't be pretty.   
> 2\. Plagueis just isn't satisfied with those pheremones, the greedy fellow.   
> 3\. Tune in next time for the fallout. There will be some very twisted violence. These are Sith.


	5. Dance of Death

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Plagueis and Sidious spar the morning after, and things finally reach the breaking point.

Morning dawned as usual, but nothing else that followed would fit the description.

 

“Good,” Plagueis called over the buzzing clash as Sidious brought up his lightsaber in a perfect block to his master’s strike. The two Sith stood in the center of a sparring ring deep within the Sith Lord’s labyrinthine base. Both wore only their trousers and sturdy combat boots, having disposed of their robes to better facilitate the match.

 

Plagueis found himself enjoying the view, as he always did when training his human apprentice. Sidious was lean and wiry, his pale skin glistening with sweat as he strove to answer his master’s increasingly powerful attacks. One shoulder already showed the painful groove of Plagueis’ blade, nicking deep enough to inhibit his movements but not entirely disable him. Sidious favored that side, rotating with graceful determination around his master, searching for an opening and finding none.

 

His apprentice remained silent as they sparred up and down the length of the training room, the only sounds the electric crackling of their blades leaping together and snapping apart. Sidious fought with unusual determination, focused on the tall Muun in front of him, now behind him, now to the left. He spun and countered the descending blade, nearly dropping to one knee from the force of the blow.

 

Plagueis paused, pinning him in place, watching the thin but solid limbs holding his strength at bay, the hate seared across sickly yellow-streaked eyes as they peered at him through the reddish glow. “You are too quiet when fighting, my apprentice,” he admonished. “Dun Moch suits you, you should learn to wield it as effectively as any blade. Laughter, a taunting word, a tease – all these can set your opponent off balance easily.”

 

“I have nothing to say at the moment, Master,” Sidious spat back, and briefly his shields dropped to expose the raw boil of hatred underneath. Ever since the night before, the night that saw his little human writhing in his long arms, Plagueis could sense Sidious’ sullen anger bubbling just under the surface.

 

Sidious was close to discovering the truth. Perhaps his mind already knew, even if he refused to accept the possibility yet. The seeming betrayal must appear monstrous indeed, for one who prided himself in his willpower and self-control. Palpatine was in denial.

 

The thought thrilled him. What would the boy do when he finally acknowledged the truth? Would he rage openly and cry foul? Would he keep his discovery to himself and let the anger fester deep inside? Would he merely sulk as he did now?

 

Sidious slipped under his blade, serpentlike, and came up on his master’s left side with a sharp attack that might have bisected the Muun if he were not the reigning Sith Lord. Instead, he caught the momentum of the strike with his own weapon and turned it on the youth. Sidious lost his footing and went down hard, his lightsaber handle jarring out of his slender fingers and clattering across the floor.

 

Wasting no time, the younger Sith twisted and managed to land a Force-powered kick to Plagueis’ knee that forced him back long enough for the human to regain his feet. Sidious was quick, so quick, and it would be his greatest strength in the deadly fights to come with the Jedi and other enemies. He slid like acid rain between the cracks in his opponent’s defenses and eroded the ability to fight back. How could one fight a phantom?

 

Plagueis had noticed over the course of his training that when Sidious was serious in a fight, he tended to favor lightning stabs and quick sweeping strikes that led to instant death for his foes. Only when assured of his victory did his sadistic apprentice begin to play with his victims, drawing out the struggle, bringing death by increment and whisper.

 

Sidious was serious today, which led Plagueis to end the fight before his apprentice could continue it. He intercepted Sidious’ lunge for his lightsaber with a powerful Force push that slammed the human into the far wall of the training room with an audible impact. Sidious coughed and collapsed to all fours, robbed of his life-giving air.

 

In half a dozen swift strides, Plagueis crossed the distance and used his boot to kick the younger Sith onto his back, then he brought his lightsaber blade down to hover over the delicate throat. Sidious froze, panting for air.

 

“Yield,” Plagueis smiled.

 

 Slowly the yellow eyes reverted to pale blue, and Sidious nodded. “Master,” he grated.

 

Plagueis’ gaze drifted down the length of the thin torso to a fading white scar that started just above Palpatine’s left hip and crossed down out of sight beneath his trousers. He smirked at the memory of giving that scar to his stubborn apprentice, of drawing out the raw scream of hate nearly three years ago, when his apprentice had been new and untried in the ways of the Sith Order, even before Plagueis had utterly dominated him.

 

He traced the tip of his blade from the throat to the chest and then to the navel, watching the porcelain skin shiver from the closeness as it passed. Sidious watched him with hooded eyes. 

 

“You should never let go of your lightsaber, Apprentice,” Plagueis rumbled at last. “Though we Sith have far greater weapons at our disposal, namely, the Force itself, it is unwise to relinquish any possible advantage.”

 

Sidious nodded.

 

“It is a mistake I have not seen you make in many months,” Plagueis continued. He feigned surprise. “Is something troubling you, Lord Sidious?”

 

He wanted to laugh when Sidious shook his head. “No, Master. There is no excuse for my mistake.”

 

“That is true if nothing else you said was.” Plagueis lowered the blade further yet to hover over the old scar. He reached out with the Force and undid the ties to the human’s trousers, then tugged them down the narrow hips just far enough to reveal the length of the healed wound. Sidious did not resist, all too aware of the deadly lightsaber hovering over his body, but his eyes burned with resentment as Plagueis casually studied him.  

 

The master looked him over and drew on his powers to avoid getting distracted by the trail of soft red down, the suggestion of the slim body. “Let this be a reminder that mistakes will only bring you pain, my Apprentice. You must learn from your mistakes and eventually cease making them. The worlds will afford you no second chances. Certainly not the Jedi Order.”

 

The younger Sith hissed and gritted his teeth as the blade tipped into his skin, flaying the upper layers open with a surgeon’s precise control, a sharp burn and the acrid smell of roasting flesh permeating the air, but he made no sound this time, though his body went rigid. Plagueis created a perfect copy of the old wound and then deactivated the blade.

 

Sidious lay in silence, devoting his energy and concentration to keep from passing out. Plagueis looked down at the long charred line. “You will need to put some bacta on that,” he said. “I am impressed with your control.”

 

His smile turned sly. “Such a difference from last night, is it not?”

 

Sidious flushed, the red in his skin spreading down over his chest and shoulders.

 

“I must say, I was surprised by your vigor then, almost as much as you were. I enjoyed it, as you clearly did. You’ve never moaned like that before, for me.”

 

The Force growled a warning. He continued to look down at Sidious, who trembled with indefinable emotion. Was it shame or fear or hatred? His apprentice’s shields were solid now, ungiving. Every passing month they grew stronger with his will. Last night had been such a delight…

 

Though Plagueis might break them again, instead he waited for them to burst on their own, overwhelmed by the terrible knowledge of what had transpired, the final acceptance. Would his apprentice’s vaunted self-control be enough to stop the tidal wave of destruction?

 

Sidious glared up at him, one hand hovering protectively over the new burn on his hip. His master sighed and, replacing the lightsaber on his belt, crossed the room to the storage devices on the far side. He called the bacta supplies to his hand from the highest shelf and floated them over to his apprentice. Sidious looked surprised for a moment before he struggled into a half sitting position and took the supplies from the air.

 

“Patch yourself up, Apprentice,” Plagueis said. “Get dressed, and then attend to your duties with the Legislature.”

 

Sidious nodded and focused on applying the bandage to his side, grunting softly at the first cool touch of the liquid against his tenderized skin. Plagueis watched him for a moment, turned at last to leave the room and pass into the antechamber where his own robes lay draped over the durasteel counter. He slid into them, found a chair, and opened his mind to the Force, seeking to gauge his apprentice’s state of mind.

 

At first, Palpatine’s thoughts lay tightly sealed behind immense barriers, but Plagueis could sense them weakening. Every passing moment, Sidious grew angrier and more resentful, that his master would wound him so easily, that his master would use him so freely, that his master would tear his own control of his body away from him.

 

He knew the moment Sidious accepted the truth.

 

He knew the moment Sidious stopped trying to hold the pain in. He knew the moment Sidious let it pass into the Force, for the mysterious energy field seemed to warp and twist in his visions, the temperature dropping as though he resided on Mygeeto again, and he could hear the blood pounding in his ears and hearts.

 

“It was the Zeltron, wasn’t it, Master.”

 

The statement exploded with quiet deadliness from the lips of his angry apprentice, the Force frozen with icy cold rage, and Plagueis looked outward to regard the young human. Palpatine stood in the door frame of the training room, clad once again in thick lush robes of the deepest greens and blacks. His eyes blazed golden, no hint of his natural blue to be found.

 

Plagueis smiled at the sight. “It was.”

 

Face flaming nearly as red as his hair, Sidious hissed, “I am not one of your experiments! What gives you the right to think-”

 

Plagueis swept to his feet and towered over his apprentice, and with a sweep of his hand, Force Lightning gathered in the atmosphere, ripped from his outstretched fingers, and tore into his apprentice.

 

Sidious gasped and faltered half a step back, objection cut short, every limb trembling with the effort to remain upright and withstand the onslaught of dark energy. He managed it, impressing Plagueis with his determined arrogance, his blatant defiance. This… this was the Sidious that would sweep the galaxy before him. Dark and terrible and wounded.

 

The master finally paused his assault to study his young charge. “I have every right,” he said, voice quiet dread. “Every right as your master, as your superior, until you come into your own and prove to me your readiness as a true Sith Lord. I have no doubt in your abilities, Sidious, but you are not yet forged to my satisfaction. You are still the Apprentice, and you would do well to remember that.”

 

Sidious took a moment to reply, his jaw muscles twitching with the aftereffects of the electric strikes. “More trials,” he grated at last.

 

“Until there is no further need of them,” Plagueis agreed mildly. He admired the anger in the Force. Already it was cooling into opportunity, already Palpatine was compartmentalizing the effects of the pheromones and seeking to reach an understanding.

 

“What did this trial prove, Master?” His voice rang with challenge and the bare minimum of politeness. “May I ask?”

 

“Careful, Lord Sidious. I’ll not long accept such a tone from you,” Plagueis warned softly. “This trial told me you are not ready. That you cannot control either yourself or your emotions yet.”

 

“Myself? My emotions?” Sidious’s jaw dropped. “You think the desire in that room was mine?”

 

Plagueis chuckled. “Enhanced and engorged, perhaps. Perhaps not. Some of my research on these pheromones is not yet conclusive. I spoke of your resistance to me. You loathe the physical aspects of such entanglements as we shared last night. You cannot help withdrawing in the face of it. You resist it.”

 

Sidious blinked. “I gave you my body, Master. ‘Willingingly.’ You ensured that.” He flung the accusation like poison from his curled lips and bared teeth.

 

Plagueis nodded. “Halfheartedly. Do you think I am the only one who will be able to sense such reluctance? I thought we had discussed this. I cannot trust an apprentice who cannot trust himself to do what must be done.”

 

He waved off Sidious’s next strained protest. “No, I do not blame you. I expect it may take years before you are capable of such things. Hence the need for further trials, and I expect you to air your grievances in a much more respectful manner next time, as befits an apprentice to the master.”

 

Slowly, Sidious nodded, but his jaw was set and his eyes were aflame. “I understand you perfectly, Master.”

 

Plagueis knew in a heartbeat that Sidious was about to do something incredibly rare.

 

Sidious was about to do something foolish.  

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> One more chapter to go, with violence warnings ahead. It's not going to be pretty...


	6. Trial and Error

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sidious goes too far, and pays the consequences of his actions. Plagueis hopes he has learned his lesson.

_Sidious was about to do something foolish._

 

He should probably stop the boy.

 

However, when Sidious spun on his booted heel in a flurry of robes and disappeared into the dim hallway adjacent to the sparring rooms, Plagueis felt his curiosity grow, and he wondered what might occur, so he allowed the younger Sith to depart the room without interference. Plagueis sank into the Force and began a series of meditations on the hot anger, seeking to follow the trail of his apprentice as he strode deeper into the complex of Aborah.

 

Plagueis’s eyes widened as he perceived the other’s destination. Sidious made no attempt to hide from him, almost broadcasting his displeasure until even the Force-sensitive beasts in their cages howled in fear and anger. The Master rose and moved swiftly through the hallways, cursing softly under his breath in the language of his people when alarms began to sound in the distance. Quickening his pace down to the second level of labs, he drew closer to the room where he kept his subjects in suspended animation.

 

For just a moment, he feared: Venamis.

 

Yet when he arrived in haste, Sidious stood over the tank of the Zeltron study instead, his hand firmly latched around the thin neck, the head rolling grotesquely on its limp shoulders. The spine had been cleanly snapped, his resource unit destroyed in a heartbeat. No torture, no agony, simply unconscious death. Plagueis stared at his apprentice.

 

Sidious stared back, and something like a satisfied smile skittered across his thin lips. He knew he would be punished for such insubordination, and yet he continued to stand, Zeltron in hand, eyes blazing with unconcealed hate.

 

_What a magnificent wild animal._ Plagueis hardened. Then he snarled softly, lifted his hands, and allowed the Force to flow over his apprentice in jagged spikes of agonizing pain. Palpatine’s body went rigid, the Zeltron splashing back into its tank, and then Sidious was on the floor, spasming under the waves of dark electricity. Plagueis punished him severely, heightening the volts until the younger Sith moaned once and then lay silently under his assault, limp and twitching and nearly unconscious.

 

Plagueis let the lightning fade and away and circled his apprentice like an apex predator. He saw Sidious’s eyes slit open to watch him, the golden gleam sharp and unbroken, still incredibly angry, so angry it took the master’s breath away. Beautiful. Glorious.

 

But too defiant.

 

“Fool,” he hissed.

 

Sidious only smiled as the electricity shocks rattled him to his bones. Gasping, he said nothing when Plagueis  stopped his second assault and leaned down over him, grabbing him by the thin wrists. Sidious flinched at the contact, but Plagueis pulled him upright and dragged his limp body to the central operating table, slinging him hard onto it.

 

His left arm caught and cracked under his own weight. Sidious gritted his teeth and pulled the broken limb tightly to his chest, but Plagueis paid it no attention and shoved it aside. He reached out and tore the ornate robes from his apprentice, ignoring the faint whimper as the arm briefly snagged in its sleeve before the robes came off and the young human was twisted onto his back. 

 

Plagueis paused and looked down, soaking in the pain of his pupil. He drew on the power of Dun Moch with a brutal smile. “You went too far today, Sidious, but I wonder… Would you have reacted so strongly if you only hated me?”

 

“You took my will from me, Master,” Sidious hissed back, clutching his arm. “I felt _nothing_ for you. I did _not_ want you. Everything was a lie!”

 

“Are you so sure of that? You, a master of lies already.” Darkly amused, Plagueis reached down and gripped the bony wrist, twisting the broken arm until Sidious groaned. “A mere lie would not put such hate in your black heart. A lie would not raise this shame I feel in you, shame for feeling something for your master, perhaps? At the very least for begging me to fuck you.”

 

Sidious glared through watery eyes.

 

Plagueis took great pleasure in literally ripping the tunic and trousers from the slender body, shoving aside the rich ruined piles until his apprentice shivered bare and broken on his back on the cold operating table, still shaking from the aftershocks of Plagueis’s electric displeasure.

 

The Sith master wasted no time. He flipped the fragile human onto his belly on the cold table and shoved two hard fingers into his ass. Sidious clenched and shuddered, hatred boiling up, slowly losing the icy hardness and becoming hot and slippery with the beginnings of rage.

 

“Good,” Plagueis snarled as he sensed it. He reached for the belt of his pants with his other hand and suddenly paused as his fingers encountered the hilt of his lightsaber. He paused a little longer.

 

Perhaps the boy needed a firmer lesson. Killing his experiments was not permitted. Open defiance could not be tolerated. Pulling the lightsaber from his belt, he ignited it, and the sound made Sidious jerk on his fingers and try to turn to see, alarm radiating in the Dark Side. He could almost sense his apprentice’s thoughts: _He wouldn’t! Not for a Zeltron. Not._

 

He certainly would not, but Sidious did not need to know that. Plagueis waited just long enough for the tip of the hilt to grow hot, where the blade’s containment force field was thinnest, then he deactivated the blade, leaned over Sidious, and whispered, “Don’t move.”

 

Pulling his fingers free, he pressed the hot tip between his student’s legs and was rewarded with a soft yelp of naked fear and pain. He held it there until his apprentice keened softly, “Master…”

 

“You know what this is. Beg for mercy,” Plagueis growled. “You don’t deserve it.”

 

Sidious bit his lip and shook his head in agreement, holding his broken arm carefully under him. But he did not beg.

 

“Very well.” Proud, Plagueis pushed the hilt forward, the tip forcing the human’s tight hole open as it slid into him. Sidious grunted and gasped as his body registered the lightsaber’s hard, unyielding form, as the hot tip scalded him, the ridges along both sides pulling at his tender flesh. Plagueis worked it slowly down until he had half the length of it in.

 

The long lightsaber, made for a two-handed Muun grip, clearly held Sidious in thrall. His apprentice barely moved as Plagueis flicked the end of it, sending vibrations into the human’s core. He caressed one smooth inner thigh mockingly. “Do you know what would happen if I activated my weapon right now?”

 

Sidious shuddered.

 

Plagueis sighed and paused his gentle petting. “I would lose my apprentice. A terrible loss, to be certain. Perhaps I could never again recover what I had. Perhaps the Dark Side itself would change.” He gripped the end of the lightsaber and worked it in several more centimeters, drawing a petrified moan from Sidious. “Your potential outshines all others.”

 

Silence.

 

“But a disobedient apprentice is no use to me, either,” he mused and tapped the activation button just lightly enough for Sidious to hear, not hard enough to turn it on. In the Force, Sidious trembled violently. Physically, he did not move. “Killed from the inside out, slaughtered while riding your master’s lightsaber like a naked whore. You would not end up in the history tomes of the Sith, Sidious. Or perhaps I would ensure you did, so all could take warning from your ignominious death.”

 

He reveled in the spark of humiliation that now burned in Sidious. His reputation mattered more to him than his life. What a proud creature this one was! How grand even while being violently debauched... 

 

He shoved the handle in hard, and this time Sidious cried out as it caught in his soft flesh and tore it. Blood trickled out from around the saber’s handle. Sidious moaned and whimpered, eyes tearing up. His delicious hate shone all the brighter though, and he hissed, “Of course, I am y-yours to command, Master. I will not beg for mercy that I do not deserve.”

 

“Of course you don’t,” Plagueis retorted, reaching out to trace the human’s rigid spine. “Perhaps I should merely give you a warning. Perhaps I should remove your manhood from you and truly make you my Sith slut. Would you learn your lesson then?”

 

Sidious tightened in fear around his weapon.

 

Plagueis ran a finger through the blood pooling on the cold metal table and inspected it. Bright, clean, life. He looked down. Magnificent. The sight of Sidious bleeding and taking his lightsaber so deeply brought the blood rushing to his own shaft, but he could not afford to become distracted now, not when the lesson must be completed, the point made. He gripped the end of the lightsaber and pulled it out halfway, feeling Sidious begin to hope, and then he slid it in again until it caught.

 

“Ahhhh!” Sidious cried, back arching, good hand scrabbling at the smooth metal table. Plagueis moved the lightsaber again, and this time he angled the penetration to hit the human’s prostate region. Sidious scrambled for purchase like a small wounded animal as the hot metal touched him there again and again in deadly kisses. His cock hardened helplessly in his terror and the arousal Plagueis was now forcing into his frantic mind.

 

But Plagueis had no intention of giving him release yet. He pulled the lightsaber from his apprentice’s body when he sensed Sidious growing close.

 

Another bolt of lightning had the boy writhing silently on the table, and he clung desperately to the smooth surface when Plagueis seized his shoulders, but Plagueis pulled him up and off with ease, half-carrying, half-dragging him to a quartet of manacles dangling near the far wall. He fastened the stun cuffs on the floor around the human’s ankles, then hauled the shivering body up and attached the ceiling cuffs to the limp wrists.

 

Sidious was barely able to stand up, blood running down his thighs and staining his boots, but Plagueis did not intend for him to stand. Stalking to a console on the right of the room, he typed his command and watched as the manacles in the ceiling retracted until Sidious was lifted into the air. His apprentice gasped and came alive as his broken arm was stretched and forced to bear half his weight.  

 

Plagueis watched his struggles dispassionately. He had hoped it would not come to this, but open defiance would not be tolerated. Stepping forward, he stopped only centimeters away from Sidious, admiring the hardened, well-formed cock, the involuntary tears in the corners of the yellow eyes. “Concentrate. You will need to heal yourself, Lord Sidious, before I return. But…” He reached out and caressed the silky flesh, the proud tip. Sidious shuddered in his chains and arched up. “I want this the same when I return. Think about what you have done, how you have displeased me.”

 

Sidious offered a shaky nod, refusing to give his master the satisfaction of defeat.

 

Trailing a hand over his side, Plagueis moved around behind him. The bleeding was already slowing; his apprentice was getting better at manipulating his midichlorians to serve his needs. “You must also be ready for me back here, but I think you will need some help.” He looked over the tools in his lab and found the blunt end of an instrument, roughly the size of his own cock. He worked it up into Sidious until the human was fully impaled and moaning softly.

 

Then he stepped back and admired his handiwork. Sidious, filled and hard, dangling broken in chains to serve his master’s pleasure. Yes, this would serve as adequate punishment. This would... make his point. 

 

He left him there for hours as he went about his work and slowly calmed from the loss of his Zeltron. It had been unavoidable, he supposed. Sidious would not stand such a scenario again. The boy was an arrogant, haughty thing, and that was something that thrilled the Sith Master to no end.

 

When evening fell, he returned to the lab to find Sidious nearly unconscious, whimpering in pain and painful arousal. But he would not beg, and Plagueis was newly impressed. He slid the hard instrument from Sidious’s channel and pushed himself in hard and fast and dry, Sidious silently jerking in his chains as he was roughly taken. Finally he came when Plagueis pressed on him with the Force, spilling in his master’s hand to the floor, and Plagueis came in him.

 

He watched his seed mixed with blood ooze down the slender legs and realized that Sidious had finally passed out. Plagueis withdrew and flicked his hand at the console, and the young Sith dropped limply to the floor as the manacles released their grip. The master left him there but called for 11-4D to be on medical standby, in case something developed. And Palpatine's arm would require a proper setting as well. 

 

He spent the rest of the night in dark meditations. Certainly, his apprentice would never try something so foolish again, but if he did, the punishments would always await. And broken again, his apprentice would emerge stronger than ever, like a firebird from the ashes.

 

Such was the nature of the Sith.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1\. Sidious is highly intelligent, so even though he’s half blind with rage and feeling at an extreme low point, as the apprentice he knows better than to attack Plagueis directly. So unfortunately, Plagueis stays in one piece for this confrontation, as much as some of us might wish otherwise, and it's Sidious who gets the raw end of the deal. :(   
> 2\. However, Sidious has a mind capable of holding a grudge for an infinitely long time (take note of the time he is choked as Plagueis’ equal in the novel).   
> 3\. There will be consequences for Plagueis, eventually.   
> 4\. The next story in this series might be either a fairly twisted Palpatine-meets-a-girl-on-Naboo story or the Veruna seduction/bribery story referenced in an earlier story. Any preferences which comes first?

**Author's Note:**

> 1\. This is the Zeltron story that inspired the earlier Gathering Story.  
> 2\. Things get very twisted in this story, but these are the Sith Lords we're talking about.  
> 3\. Very, very twisted.


End file.
